Since the beginning of 2022, a ban on the killing of male day-old chicks is in effect on German soil. Ter Heerdt chose to implement PLANTegg technology in their hatching process. PoultryPlan offered the team insight into the data needed to succesfully develop and implement the technology.
Every egg exported to Germany must cross the border with the label ‘ohne kükentöten’. Ir. Karin de Zeeuw is closely involved in the gender determination process within Ter Heerdt. Hatchery Ter Heerdt is a market leader in selling pullets and day-old-chickens in the Netherlands
The market offers various technologies for gender determination in the egg, but Ter Heerdt opted for PLANTegg. PLANTegg is a PCR-based method for gender determination of hatching eggs. The PCR technology makes the genetic differences, to be found in the DNA of the allantoic fluid, visible. As the gender can be determined with high precision at an early stage of incubation, eggs containing male chicks can be sorted out early and used for other purposes.
PoultryPlan played a significant role in the development and implementation of the innovative technology at Ter Heerdt. Karin de Zeeuw: “PoultryPlan offers us insight into the differences between Plantegg and regular hatching eggs. We register all data in the system and thus always have insight into the state of affairs. In PoultryPlan, for example, we easily have a picture of the outcome of Plantegg eggs versus regular eggs, and we can see the improvements over time. This helps us to make decisions regarding our business operations. We find all relevant data in a well-arranged database.”
